Gerald Mainwaring born about 1854 was the sixth of ten children of the Reverend Charles Henry Mainwaring (1819 – 1878) and his wife Jane née Delves-Broughton (1824 – 1873).
Charles Henry and Jane married in 1847. He was the fifth child (fourth son) of Admiral Rowland Mainwaring of Whitmore Hall in Staffordshire (1783 – 1862).
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| Lancaster Gazette 16 October 1847 page 3 |
Charles Henry had been ordained in 1845 and took up residence at the rectory as curate of Whitmore in 1846. He was inducted as rector of Whitmore in 1868 following the death of the incumbent the Reverend John Brazier.
In 1861 Gerald aged 6 was living at Whitmore rectory with his father, nine siblings and a governess, cook, three housemaids and another female servant. His mother was away from home.
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Source Citation: Class: RG 9; Piece: 1915; Folio: 4; Page: 2; GSU roll: 542886. Source Information:
Ancestry.com. 1861 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. |
In 1871 Gerald was not at home with his parents and 8 siblings. Also missing from the family home was Cecil.
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Source Citation: Class: RG10; Piece: 2830; Folio: 4; Page: 1; GSU roll: 836372. Source Information:
Ancestry.com. 1871 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. |
the object as its prospectus informs us of giving an education to the sons of clergymen and others similar to that of the Great Public Schools of a more comprehensive character and at less cost. (http://books.google.com.au/books?id=pLMAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA491 )
The school could cater for 400 boys and in the 1871 census filled a twenty page enumeration book with pupils and staff members (25 to a page).
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| Rossall School in 1904. The archway was built in 1867. |
As a side note, stone from Rossall can be found in the cloisters of Canberra Grammar School, where my brother, son and nephews went to school, along with stones from Eton, Westminster, St Paul’s, and ten other schools.
Gerald’s mother Jane died on 30 June 1873 at the age of 51.
Gerald’s father died in 1878 at Whitmore age 58.
The oldest daughter Ethel Mary Mainwaring (1848 – 1932) married William Robert Parker-Jervis in 1877.
The second daughter Maude Mainwaring (1849 – 1924) in 1881 was visiting her sister Julia and husband. In 1886 Maude married Edward Swynfen Parker Jervis of Little Aston Hall; he was her sister Ethel’s father-in-law, that is the father of William Robert Parker Jervis.
The oldest son Rowland Broughton Mainwaring (1850 – 1926) had entered the army in 1871. He had a distinguished career and served as a general in World War 1. He married in 1880 but died without issue. In 1873 he was in Africa serving in the Third Ashanti War as a Lieutenant in the 2/23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers.
The second son Henry Arthur Mainwaring (1852 – 1877) died in Cordoba, Argentina aged 25.
Cecil Charles Mainwaring (1853 – 1877) died age 24 near Toronto, Canada. His occupation at time of death was a clerk.
Administration of the estates of Henry and Cecil was granted to Edward Delves Broughton of Wistaston Hall who was the sole acting executor of the will of their father.
Pauline Jane Mainwaring (1854 – 1909) married Robert Burton in 1891. In 1881 she accompanied her brother Percy on a visit to Angus Obbard and his wife. Obbard was a clergyman living in Sussex.
Gerald was tried for murder in 1879 (more on that later). Before 1879 he had been 3 or 4 years in America, one report stated he was successfully farming at Manitoba in Canada. There is a shipping record for 1875 for a Mr Mainwaring sailing to Quebec on the Nova Scotia but there is not enough information to identify him as a member of the family or otherwise.
Julia Sophia Henrietta Mainwaring (1857 – 1943) married Walter Neil Jervis at Clifton Derbyshire in April 1879. Apparently it was for this wedding that Gerald Mainwaring returned from Canada.
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| Pall Mall Gazette 1 May 1879 page 3 |
The fifth son Percy Edward Mainwaring (1858 – 1927) studied at Pembroke College, Oxford. He became Rector of Whitmore in 1885.
The sixth son Gordon Louis Mainwaring (1860 – 1901) was on the 1881 census an articled clerk (law) living in lodgings in Nantwich. In 1891 he was living with two of his sisters at Clifton Cross, Derbyshire, and was of independent means.
Murder of Police Constable Moss by Gerald Mainwaring in July 1879
As mentioned above, Gerald was in Manitoba farming from the mid 1870s. He returned to England in April 1879 to attend his sister Julia’s wedding. In July he was due to return to Canada but before doing so decided to go on a spree in Derby. He became very drunk, was apprehended by the police when driving a trap very fast through the town. He was apprehended by the police together with a female companion. When the police were searching the female companion, Gerald Mainwaring fired several shots with a revolver he was carrying; he wounded two policemen, one of them fatally.
Gerald Mainwaring was tried and was found guilty of murder. He was sentenced to hang. However, his sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life as it turned out that the jury had not been able to agree the sentence and effectively drew a ballot to decide.
On the 1881 and 1891 censuses Gerald Mainwaring was recorded as a prisoner at Her Majesty’s Prison at Chatham Kent. The prison closed in the 1890s.
I can find no record of Gerald Mainwaring on the 1901 census or in the death records. Nor is there any newspaper mention of him. The family history compiled in the 1930s states he died in America and does not specify a death date.
Gerald Mainwaring was my 1st cousin four times removed.
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